New Delhi is raising its stakes in the UAE to cultivate mutual relationship
INDIA began to “Look East” in the 1990s, pursuing a policy now recalibrated as “Act East”. The East responded.
In a similar mutual reassessment, it has begun to consolidate its “Look West”, towards the Gulf region.
Like everyone else, India is adding to its ancient ties and geopolitical compulsions to the changing global scenario as the West (read Brexit, Donald Trump’s America) is seeking to move away. Also read Trans Pacific Partnership.
Walking through diplomatic minefields, India had trained Saddam Husain’s air force in Iraq, which annoyed the Americans, and it did business with the Ayatollahs’ Iran.
Over the recent years, it has developed enormous stakes in the Gulf region, despite the latter’s mediaeval forms of tribal, ethnic and sectarian rivalries, and royal princes’ preoccupation with falcons and hunting of houbara bustards.
The Gulf region is India’s largest trade and investment partner, a primary source of oil and gas imports, and home to its eight million workers. Expatriates run the services there and the better ones have turned investors.
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Zayed Al Nahyan was the chief guest at the 68th Republic Day last month, heading a large Keffiyeh-crowned entourage. This indicates India’s growing ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and, by extension, the Gulf region as a whole.
Symbolically, Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building in Dubai, was lit up in the colours of the Indian national flag for two days as part of India’s celebration.
The UAE crown prince was the second Arab leader to attend the Republic Day celebration after Saudi King Abdullah Abdulaziz al-Saud in 2006.
India eyes financial investments worth US$60 billion (RM264 billion) and energy security from the region in infrastructure and a myriad sector. As Emirates and Etihad fly in and out of India, tiny Qatar has just been invited to form or invest in an airline.
Indeed, the security and stability of the Indian subcontinent as a whole and the Gulf region are interlinked.
Laws in most Gulf countries make naturalisation and citizenship virtually impossible and require working with temporary visas.
In the UAE, over 2.8 million Indians — Hindus, Muslims and Christians — send US$14 billion home annually, and live in harmony with a million Pakistanis and 1.2 million Bangladeshis. Together, they form a third of the UAE’s population.
The 1970s phenomenon of young Maoists of India’s Kerala state chucking the Red Book and heading for the Gulf was unique.
They are now facing problems, what with the free-fall in crude prices, job cuts and prospects of an end to tax-free living, but are trudging on. The Gulf remains an attractive destination.
Trading since the 7th century, the Indians have been part of the Gulf scene, long before and since the oil boom, to mutual benefit. The world’s only non-Muslim Sheikh is an Omani Indian businessman, whose firm has thrived there for 146 years.
Breaking protocol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave Al Nahyan a warm hug at the tarmac. Besides signalling the growing proximity, Modi sought to reiterate a point with those Arabs who have willy-nilly abetted terrorism.
He also sought to consolidate on his August 2015 UAE visit, when the two countries had condemned efforts, including by states, to use religion to justify, support and sponsor terrorism against other countries, or to use terrorism as instrument of state policy.
For long, the Gulf meant mainly oil and jobs for the Indians. After long years of hesitation, there is evidence of mutual reassessment.
India is wooing the UAE because it is at the forefront of this process.
Smuggling of gold to India and pirating Bollywood films are history.
But amidst “clash of civilisations” on one hand, and on the other, a violent rivalry between al-Qaeda and the Islamic State or Da’esh (both threatening the world), India is hoping that lawbreakers and dangerous fugitives like Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted for many criminal cases in India and is said to shuttle between Karachi and Dubai, would not find shelter in the Gulf.
Viewed from the Gulf prism, India is an emerging economy and a source of much knowledge and know-how that is cheaper and without “strings”. India’s ability to export and its energy imports, besides a stable polity and society, make it attractive.
Similarly, India has many lessons to learn from the UAE’s economic strides and futuristic plans in infrastructure and human resources. The huge manpower that travels to and works in the UAE and other Gulf nations can be of immense help.
On the other hand, the UAE, looking to diversify its economic portfolio beyond oil and gas by leveraging new technologies, could do with Indian experience in engineering and information technology sectors.
Modi’s 2015 UAE visit had seen the latter commit to investing US$75 billion in Indian infrastructure. Much of it has been elusive. An intelligent and concerted follow-up to the crown prince’s visit should lead to better mutual perceptions and results.
On the security front, although the UAE, with its West-supplied 515 combat aircraft and 2,000 tanks, is already an exporter of defence equipment, it can work with India on maritime issues and equipment.
As in most places, China is in the Gulf, way ahead of India. It is now for New Delhi to play catch-up and more to engage with the Sunni Arabs as it has done with the Shia Iranians.
That India has good ties with the United States and engages with everyone helps India.
India needs a strategic partner in the Gulf region. And UAE, with its benign monarchy (compared to some others in the region), modern outlook, hunger for an innovation-driven economy, and substantial Indian diaspora perfectly fits the bill.
The writer, Mahendra Ved is NST’s New Delhi correspondent, is the president of the Commonwealth Journalists Association 2016-2018 and a consultant with ‘Power Politics’ monthly magazine. He can be reached via mahendraved07@gmail.com